Journey’s Jonathan Cain Talks ‘Don’t Stop Believin” Memoir

Cain promises plenty of creative insight and positive message in the tome, which comes out May 1 to coincide with Journey’s summer tour with Def Leppard.

“I like the way we did this, because it’s a musical, songwriter’s book,” Cain, who co-wrote Don’t Stop Believin’ with Travis Thrasher, tells Billboard. “I’m excited. I’m scared, a little nervous but grateful. I never thought this would happen. I started writing this book 10 years ago.”

The story Cain set out to tell is “just one of perseverance. It’s about dealing with the setbacks of the music business — the ups and downs, the dedications, the rejection, dealing with everybody that says ‘You’re not good enough’ and carrying on. Just because somebody tells you you can’t write and you can’t sing doesn’t mean you’ve got to quit, it just means you haven’t gotten to the right position yet. So it’s a book of hope and faith.” And the pages reveal that the primary source of Cain’s own faith was his father Leonard Friga, the guy who told him to not stop believing in the first place and even predicted that his tenure with the Babys before joining Journey in 1980 was “just a stepping stone.”